The usual disclaimers, I don’t own them, Pet Fly and Paramount may not want them anymore but for some reason they won’t let me and the others who love them have them except on loan. I don’t make money doing this, but I can dream. P.S. in my universe TSBBS never happened.
VVRRRRRRRRROOOOOOM
He was up to something, I just knew it. It wasn’t so much that he was acting weird. Weird was S.O.P. for Sandburg. It wasn’t his high level of activity. Anyone who knew him usually equated him with
the ‘Energizer Bunny’ anyhow. I hadn’t
heard, or seen anything that warned me of specific problems, even though I have
better than your average see, hear, smell, touch and taste equipment.
It was just a feeling. Like when the hair on the back of my neck keeps going to
attention whenever I notice him over looking through the newspaper in the ‘For
Sale’ stuff.
But though I’d casually managed to saunter behind
him and zoom a look at the page, nothing had been circled and the page is full
of a miscellaneous assortment of things.
Including furniture!
Could he be looking for a new bed maybe? He hadn’t mentioned any problem so I had
just assumed he’d been content with the futon I’d gotten when I first let him
come to live at my place. Let? Yeah, keep telling yourself that
Ellison. Like I’d really had any chance
of deflecting steamroller Sandburg once he got the idea.
Of course his own place had just been blown to
smithereens by a minor war between his drug lab neighbors, and he had been a
lot of help getting a handle on the damn hyper senses that had suddenly popped
back up in me. And damn he could lay on
the most pitiful puppy dog eyes you could ever imagine. Like those goofy pictures of little kids and
their pets were the eyes seemed to take up the whole painting! Like that!
So really how in the heck could I have not let him
crash at the loft until he got a new place.
I lived alone and I did have the spare room. And it had been originally just for a week. Um, that was three years ago? My how time flies when you are in the
Sandburg zone!
Sometimes I catch myself using some of his phrases,
or looking at something in the childlike fascinated way he does and I wonder
which of us has had the most effect on the other.
Longhaired, hippy, love child, non-violent, genius
grad student and up tight, establishment, no quarter no surrender, ex-Ranger,
lethal weapon type cop. Best friends,
partners, even closer than brothers.
Just goes to prove miracles sometimes do happen.
For me that is what the kid has been. A miracle.
At a point when I had pretty much accepted that for me there could only
be the job and nothing else, I was at risk of losing it all. If a recent divorce and the prior loss of a
partner weren’t bad enough, I was sure I was succumbing to a weird and job
ending form of insanity.
Well what would you call it when you suddenly found
yourself hearing stuff a mile away, or smell blood from two hundred feet? Try to imagine feeling every thread in your
shirt, or seeming to see up close and personal a face in a fifth story window?
Yep, definitely round the bend, post traumatic
stress, section eight, wacko time. Jim
Ellison, trained, elite soldier, who could kill you with his bare hands in
seconds, a psycho. If those thoughts
weren’t scary enough. Add to the
picture now a cop, armed and on the streets.
My oath to serve and protect wouldn’t work real well
when the people needed protection from me.
Then up pops Sandburg. Another doctor had just finished finding nothing wrong with me,
implying that it was all in my head.
This child, hell he looked maybe twenty, he finagles his way into the
exam room and proceeds to spout this wave of mumbo jumbo. Bottom line, he says there is someone who
knows what’s going on and knows how to help me.
He hands me a card with a name at Rainier University
and vanishes.
I was desperate, I admit it. My job had become my whole world. No family, we’re pretty much as estranged as
you can get. No Army, my team was dead
and buried in Peru. No wife, she
couldn’t deal with the way I ‘locked out everyone, distrusted everyone,
including her’. Her words, not
mine. She couldn’t understand. As a cop you have to have a real thick shell
or the shit you see and hear every day makes eating one of your own bullets
real attractive. And the kind of
upbringing I had was about as touchy feely as boot camp. In my fathers eyes any talk about feelings,
or love or even a hug was unmanly and a sign of weakness.
Losing my job would have been the last straw. I’d lost way too much in my life to lose
that to. When somebody dangled hope in
front of me, you bet I jumped for it.
So I went to see Sandburg. We
met, I went ballistic and he saved my butt.
The rest as they say is history.
But I’m getting off the subject.... getting like him,
thoughts flying around like sonic speed butterflies. Anyway, he’s up to something, and I am responding like any
self-respecting ‘Blessed Protector’ would.
I’m alternating between suspicious, worried, and scared. With Sandburg it could be anything. No day is complete without his minimum daily
requirement of trouble. And the fact
that the last couple of weeks had been disaster free did nothing to ease my
mind. I just kept waiting for the
inevitable.
There he is with Rafe again. This was the third time this week my GQ
cover guy fellow detective has given Sandburg a lift home when I couldn’t get
free and he’d had University stuff he had to get to. Blair’s beloved ‘classic’ Volvo had thrown a rod and wasn’t
repairable until the mechanic could find parts, in the junkyard mind you.
Now the two were walking toward the elevator almost
in a huddle. Of their own volition my
Sentinel senses tuned in to their conversation. Yeah I know, ease dropping is rude.....but sometimes I have no
control of these darn senses. HEY!
It’s true!
“It sound’s perfect Rafe!” Naturally I tune into him first.
Something about Sandburg pulls my senses like metal shavings to a
magnet.
“I thought it would suit your need, and my neighbor
treated it well. It’s in prime
condition.” What was Rafe’s neighbor
trying to pawn off on the kid?
Even though the elevator had closed and started down
my ears continued to follow. “Yeah, and
the price sure is right! Thanks man, I
really appreciate your setting this up.
It’ll solve everything.” Okay
Chief, what had Rafe ‘set up’?
“I like that he gave it a Native American name. It’s so appropriate.” Sandburg’s voice had both a wistful and
excited edge to it.
“What about Jim?
You think he’ll freak? I
definitely remember how he feels about cycles.” CYCLE!.... as in motorcycle!
“Yeah, he’ll freak at first. But after the initial explosion he’ll really
look at it and see that it’s a good solution to the problem of my
transportation.” Yeah Chief, your transportation
to the local hospital! Sandburg had
enough trouble staying in one piece; no way he was going to tool around on a
two wheeled coma guarantee.
“You going to pick it up now?”
“If you’re willing to drop me off there I would sure
like to!”
“You got it Blair.
This I have got to see!”
I couldn’t believe this. We’d had this conversation once before, when Rafe (soon to be
dead for bringing it up again) had bought a fully tooled out Harley
Davidson. Black satin and went from
zero to beyond what the law allows in 6 seconds.
Sandburg had looked like a kid at the window of a
toy store. Luckily when Rafe had let
the kid try it out....when I wasn’t around mind you, the thing had been too
heavy for the wiry grad student to keep upright while he tried to jump-start
it. After several tries and having had
it almost fall over with him several times he got it started. He revved the engine, put it in gear and the
overpowered engine did an instant wheelie and dumped him on his can.
Rider less, the brand new bike had squealed off for
about fifty feet before thankfully piling harmlessly into a shrub nearby. The Harley was slightly scratched and Blair
walked with a limp for two days.
I thought I’d handled it pretty well
considering. Blair, all one hundred and
thirty pounds soaking wet of him, could have easily wrapped himself around a
telephone pole on that first try. Road
rash butt was inconsequential to what could have been. When I arrived he was just picking himself
up off the pavement, with some anxious assistance from Rafe.
So I felt like I was pretty reasonable when I didn’t
rip off Rafe’s perfectly groomed head.
All I did was pin him against the wall and threatened to scoop out his
brains through his ears if he every failed to use the organ in regards to my
partner’s safety again.
Sandburg had intervened, butt burn not withstanding,
pealing me off Rafe just as I was getting a real head of steam up. I couldn’t avoid imagining Blair, broken and
bleeding. I had a strong hate for
cycles.
You see I’d ridden a cycle before joining the
Army. The summer of my eighteenth year
my best friend and fellow biker had had his throttle stick while goofing around
racing. He’d smashed into the median and
been thrown thirty feet. He lingered
for three months, paralyzed and brain damaged.
I’d never forgotten. I started
driving trucks after that.
Once I’d assured myself that the kid wasn’t really
hurt, I’d tried to read him the riot act.
He’d gotten pissed, slung around lines like “you’re not my keeper” and
“I am an adult, I decide what I do and don’t do.” It had been a miserable week of us hackling each time we were
around each other. I couldn’t get past
the image of my childhood friend’s untimely end and he couldn’t get past my
trying to force him to do things my way.
As usual it was Sandburg who initiated
reconciliation. He got me to sit down
and talk instead of scream and order and demand. He’d sat and told me his feelings. How hurt he was I didn’t trust him to make his own
decisions. That he had already decided
the bike was way to powerful for him to safely manage, but that he didn’t
appreciate being ‘ordered’ to stay away from it.
I had, as usual, clammed up and refused at first to
express any of my own feelings. But one
thing about Blair, he is tenacious. Oh,
real gentle, compassionate, empathic, what ever you want to call it, but
absolutely unstoppable! He sat and
talked, and cajoled and prompted and nagged and pleaded with those damn eyes,
and generally wore me down until I finally let him pull out of me the whole
story. My friend’s accident, my horror
at the Deja’ Vu of that days event, my terror at the thought of losing my Guide
and best friend in the same way.
He’d looked at me with those eyes that held both a
child’s wonder and an ancient’s wisdom and then had just flung his arms around
me in an ‘all is forgiven’ hug. He
promised not to try and ride Rafe’s machine and said he was sorry he had scared
me.
Did I mention in my father’s house hugs ceased to
exist in our vocabulary after my mother baled out on us? Well since I’ve had Blair in my life I have
not only had it returned to my vocabulary.... but also I’ve gotten quite
fluent. So if his hug was one of
forgiveness, the one I returned was one of gratitude, and I squeezed the
stuffing out of him.
But here he was, planning to buy a motorcycle in
spite of his promise? Worse. He’d mentioned how appropriate it was that
it was named after a Native American.
Hell the only reason I could think of for that comment was that the damn
bike was one of the old classic bikes, an Indian!
Those Indians had been wall-to-wall horsepower. But they were slightly lighter and lower to
the ground than a Harley was. One of
them didn’t require as much muscle to keep it upright and pop the
kick-start. Sandburg was just about the
right size for it.
I found myself up and standing by the elevator. I don’t even remember getting up! But I could already hear the distinct sound
of the brown sedan Rafe used at work pulling out of the garage below. No way I could catch up with them.
Returning to my desk I forced myself to concentrate
on completing the last of the paperwork on the case I’d just finished. Sandburg had done 90% of it before he’d
left. But there were some things that
just had to be filled in by the Detective who’d actually done the collar. So I sat and read, and reread, and read
again the damn report. Unable to keep
focus enough to remember the content from one paragraph to another. Instead fuming about broken promises,
sneaky Guides, and what I planned to do to Rafe, and the motorcycle and
possibly even Blair!
I was just trying to remember where I kept the
sledgehammer in the basement when I tuned in to the fact that someone was
standing right by my desk. Startled I
swung my gaze up to find my boss with his arms crossed over his chest, just
standing there. His eyebrows where
arched and he did not look amused.
Suddenly I felt like Sandburg must when Simon would
glower at him from his impressive 6 foot 4.
“Um.. Captain?”
“Glad you rejoined the planet Ellison.” His voice was always so deep it sounded
intimidating even when he was in a good mood.
Which he wasn’t now? “I asked
you for that report an hour ago. I’ve
been standing here for five minutes watching you read the same page ten times
and try to grind your teeth to powder.”
He leaned in, putting his hands on the desk across from me. “What’s up Jim?” A trace of concern inched into the question. But then he studied my face for a moment,
glanced around the room to make sure no one was in hearing range. “Or is this one of those Sentinel things
that I don’t really want to know about?”
A brief smile relaxed the clenched muscles of my
jaw. Simon had had an illustrious but
generally normal life before my enhanced senses and an extremely unorthodox
grad student had gone and knocked it all off kilter.
Now he winced whenever a case took a left turn into
the Sandburg zone. Not many police
Captains had to deal with Shaman’s, spirit guides, ghosts, and some of the
other less than run of the mill things that seemed to track down Sandburg and
I.
But this wasn’t a Sentinel thing. My face became stormy again as I returned to
my previous train of thought.
“Sandburg’s buying a motorcycle Simon.”
I shook my head with a mixture of anger, sadness and confusion. “I just don’t get it. He promised after that mess with Rafe’s
Harley that he wouldn’t try it again.”
I looked up at my Captain and friend.
“He knows how I feel about cycles.
I can’t believe he’d just ignore my feelings on this?”
“Jim. We both
know Sandburg would never intentionally do something to hurt you. But right now he has no way to get to work
or the station. He’s totally dependant
on you or someone else to get around.
Also we know that money is always a problem for the kid. No way he can afford a car.” Simon was looking down at me like a patient
father explaining why another boy could have a certain toy and I couldn’t. It was almost funny.
“If Sandburg is buying a cycle it is probably
because that is all he can afford. Talk
to him Jim. And for God’s sake don’t
start off with threats or demands.” He
waggled his finger at me in warning. “I
will not have you and him stomping around here like two grumpy five year olds
expecting the other to apologize first.
It had the whole department upset.”
I knew what he meant. There was something about Sandburg. Maybe it was his eternal optimistic outlook, or his enthusiasm
and energy. But since Blair had started
being my partner he had become an integral part of Major Crimes. His presence seemed to comfort, motivate,
warm and generally support not just my Sentinel self, but all the members of
our tight knit group. When he was
missing, sick, hurt, scared or upset, all of Major Crimes seemed to vibrate off
key.
Reaching down Simon grabbed the report from under my
hands. “Ellison, give me that
report. It’s as done as it’s likely to
get in your present state of mind. Go
find your partner and get this straightened out.”
For a moment my stubborn streak reared it’s head and
I started to argue. But that’s another
thing Sandburg’s helped me with. I’m
less prone to let my tongue trip over my pride.
“Thanks Simon.”
I agreed appreciatively as I grabbed my light jacket off the hook and
headed for the door.
As I climbed into my truck a few seconds later it
occurred to me I had no idea where Blair was.
Somewhere out there he was getting on a motorcycle with enough power to
break every speed law in the city. What
if he lost control right off the bat?
What if it wasn’t in as good condition as Rafe thought and it blew a
tire at speed or the throttle stuck?
God.... if anything happened to that kid I truly doubted I’d be able to
carry on. He had become as necessary to
my life as food and air.
“Where are you buddy?” I asked the air around me.
Of course I got no answer.
Though there was some kind of spooky link between he and I, it didn’t
always turn on when I wanted it to.
It would have been pretty handy a couple of times one or the other of us
had been snatched. But it had worked
when it was really important. At the
fountain I’d been in time, everything else was gravy!
Frustrated I turned the key and started the truck
with a roar. As I pulled out of the
garage I automatically steered toward the campus. Blair had left early to make an important meeting at the
University. He may have detoured to get
the bike, but I knew that was where he would be within the hour.
The weather was beautiful out, one of the truly
temperate spring days we have sometimes.
Obviously many of the locals where taking advantage of it because
traffic was a little heavy but I made it to Rainier in no time.
Pulling into the faculty lot I looked around for any
sign of an unfamiliar motorcycle. But
there were no cycles at all. Yet.
As if summoned by my thoughts, Rafe’s sedan pulled
into the lot. He steered into a slot
near the entrance so he didn’t see my truck or me at the other end. There was no one in the passenger seat.
I dialed up my hearing and couldn’t hear the tell
tale sound of a motorcycle approaching.
Where the hell was Sandburg?
When my hearing of it’s own accord pulled in a odd,
rapid, little ‘pfissst ommp, pfissst
ommp, pfissst ommp’ sound approaching, I easily discarded the lawn mower engine
type noise as nuisance clatter.
As Rafe climbed out of his car I was out of the
truck and nearly pouncing on him. I
guess I had moved kind of quiet because he almost jumped out of his skin when I
grabbed hold of his arm.
“Jeez Ellison, give me a heart attack!” He muttered
as he saw who had latched onto him. But
then he looked up at my face and I watched the color drain from his face. “Uhhh, something wrong Jim?” He asked with just barely contained
nervousness.
“You dropped Blair off to pick up his new bike huh
Rafe?” I asked in what I considered a
blasé tone. I guess it came out more a
growl than a question because the nattily clad Detectives Adam’s apple did a
couple of bobs up and down before he gulped out an answer.
“Yyyou know about that? Oh. Um. Yeah. He asked.
You know. Um. I was giving him a lift. You know, his car being DOA and all. Um.
Ahh. Ouch!” I didn’t realize but I think my grip on the
guys arm had been getting progressively tighter as he stumbled through his
response, because he was definitely grimacing by the end.
“Jim! What
the hell are you doing?” Suddenly
Blair’s surprised and slightly alarmed voice was right behind me. I hadn’t even noticed his arrival. I dropped Rafe’s arm like it was hot and
plastered a calm and rational expression on my face as I turned. I didn’t want him to see that I was hurt at
his having broken a promise, or notice my anger at his going behind my
back. No. I was going to be in total control here. THEN I’d take a sledgehammer to the damn
thing!
As I released his arm Rafe babbled out a quick “See
ya Sandburg!” and was back in his car
with the door slammed before I blinked.
As soon as I turned my back he was pulling out to leave.
My pivot brought me almost face to face with Blair
who had been just behind me. Just as I
started to open my mouth I looked down and froze.
“What are you doing here? Hey why did it look like you were ready to rip Rafe’s arm
off? I’m glad you’re here; I had a
surprise to show you. Well Jim. Don’t just stand there man. What do you think? Isn’t it cool? Or isn’t She cool? Man, her owner always talks about her as ‘her’ and ‘she’ you
know. Like she’s a real girl, but hey,
whatever works. He’s treated her like
one of his kids. Garaged and regular
trips to the mechanic for his ‘Tonka’.
That’s her name, Tonka; it’s Sioux for horse. Apropos huh? All original
paint and chrome.” I will never know
how the guy can manage to say so much without taking a breath. Olympic swimmers don’t have that much lung
capacity! His face was lit like he had
just been given the newest, hottest toy that all the kids in the neighborhood
wanted.
My relief was almost palatable. I could only stand there, my jaw hanging
open staring at Blair and the bike he still sat on.
A Vespa scooter.
Metallic glitter blue with large chrome lights and rear wheel well. Thin spoke tires, leather saddlebags and
deep padded seat. Eagle feathers
fluttered from the antennae sticking up from the single round taillight. It was short enough for the kid to straddle
it and still have his feet firmly on the ground.
Back in the sixties and seventies the small putt
putts had swarmed around Cascade each spring through summer. Almost every student at the University and
most of the teachers had owned one.
As a teen, when I’d gotten my powerful, macho
motorcycle I’d sneered at those who had the zippy little Italian scooters. But the diminutive bikes that got
unimaginable mileage and had so few parts to go wrong had become collectors
items when they where withdrawn from the American market. I had heard recently that they were going to
be coming back to the States in 2001, but hadn’t otherwise even remembered they
existed. This one was from around the
end of the sixties, but was in mint condition.
As all these thoughts were running through my brain,
apparently Sandburg had a few thoughts running through his.
“Jim, how come you’re here?” He asked with a noticeable suspicious tone
to his voice. I found myself looking
square into those deep blue eyes of his that made me so aware of how damn
transparent I was to him. His mouth
twisted into an impatient frown. “You
knew I was getting this didn’t you? You
eavesdropped on Rafe and I as we were leaving.... didn’t you?” Shaking his head disapprovingly he
continued to focus his eyes on my face, reading my expression and body language
like the familiar book it was. “You
wouldn’t have gotten off early and come here just to see my new bike. You thought I was getting one of those
monsters like Rafe has! You
eavesdropped and figured I was breaking my promise so you’d what..... break a
few bones? Man, when I drove in I knew
something was up. You looked ready to
rip Rafe’s arm off and beat him with it.”
Hell I hate it when he does that. He may not be a cop but between his
anthropology training and his intuitive ability to read people he was the best
natural detective I have ever known.
“I didn’t hurt him......just scared him a
little.” I replied matter of
factly. That’s the difference between
us, when Blair gets caught doing something questionable, he ‘obfuscates’, and I
just plead the fifth or deny any wrong doing entirely.
“Yeah, I’ll say!
Damn it Jim, Rafe really helped me out here and you come on like
Conan.” He looked at me with a
combination of pissed off and disappointed.
The pissed off I could deal with, but that disappointed look pulled all
my strings.
“Hey, I just reacted, okay Chief. I heard ‘cycle’ and suddenly it was that
whole damn vision of you doing a kamikaze and smearing yourself across the
highway.” I looked at his tightlipped
expression. “I can’t help it buddy, I
worry about you.” I tried to put on
puppy dog eyes myself, but I should have known he’d see right through it.
“Jim!” He
burst out laughing. “Big guy, take it
from me, it is realllllyyy hard for a six foot two buff ex ranger to pull off
looking pathetic.”
I smiled in response to his grin. He had one of those smiles that glowed from
his hair to toes and just made everyone around him feel good. It’s a gift and he is extremely well
endowed.
“Well Darwin, I have to start mastering it if I’m
ever going to stand a fighting chance coping with you, aren’t I?”
“Coping!
Coping with me? Hey, who has so
many rules that Hoyles is thinking of printing an abridged edition of them
all. Who drives pursuits so fast they
owe money for windows broken by the sonic boom?
Who has to have Wonder burgers for dinner at least
once a week or they go into cholesterol withdrawal? I think I’m the one who has to be commended for MY coping!”
I slung an arm over his shoulders and ruffled his
long hair with the other. “Well lets
call it a draw on the coping competition, okay?” Looking down at the pocket-sized motor scooter I shook my head in
dismay. “Chief, I gotta ask...whats the
story and.... why is the fact that this thing has a Native American name
appropriate. You scared me
spitless. I thought you’d gone and
gotten an Indian!”
“Man Jim, you eavedropped the whole damn
conversation didn’t you? I’m going to
have to start carrying a white noise generator just to have privacy!” He made a soft ‘tisk tisk’ sound and shook
his head with disapproval, but the dancing laughter in his eyes told me I was
already forgiven. “Tonka’s owner has to
go to Europe on assignment, he’s a photographer, and he’s letting me keep her
until winter. Free! So the money I save
on gas and stuff will pay for the repairs on the Volvo which will be my only
mode of transport come winter. No way I
could tool around Cascade in the open come winter, hell even fall is to
cold. Brrrrrrr.” He shivered dramatically. Then tilted his head in thought.
“An Indian?
Oh you mean one of those low, mean looking old bikes they rode in Easy
Rider. Cool looking. But how the hell did you think I could
afford one of those expensive antiques when I can’t even get enough together to
fix my Volvo?”
I had plunked down next to him on the long cushioned
seat of the mini cycle. He had to twist
and look up to see my face, which I am ashamed to say showed I didn’t have a
clue for a answer. How the hell DID I
think Sandburg could afford a collectable cycle that probably cost more then
two new cars?
He burst out laughing all over again. God I could never get enough of that sound,
for some reason it was as relaxing as a quick nap.
“Duh!” He
snickered then smack my arm. “It is
appropriate that she has a Native American name because her owner is John Bigtree an Ogalala Sioxe……
so……..” He looked at me expectantly.
And I still did not have a clue. So I looked right back him and said,
“Soooooooo………….WHAT?”
He snickered again and patted the shiny chrome
handlebars. “Jim, this model of scooter
is the Vespa ‘Pony’!”
As punchlines went it was incredibly anti climatic
but I finally caught on to the twisted Sandburg humor.
“So it, excuse me, she, is a Indian’s Pony? Isn’t that sort of not politically correct
Chief?” Then I winced as I realized how
the nickname I had given him underlined the joke. I recognized the sign posts, I was taking a left turn into the
Sandburg zone, I just knew it.
“Yeah I guess you’re right about that
Kemosabi!” He waggled his eyebrows at
me in a mischievious challenge. “Want a
lift?”
I looked at the small shiny motor on the
scooter. “Think she’s got the
‘horse’power Tonto?”
“Well let’s saddle up and see!” He patted the seat behind him and chuckled
when I sat and the poor thing almost squatted on its haunches. My knees were almost at Sandburgs waist as I
had to fold my over six feet nearly in half to keep my legs from dragging. Propping my feet on the tiny little posts
sticking out from the hind wheel I wrapped my arms around Blairs chest.
He slapped my hands away from the throttles when I
made a cat quick grab for them. “No way
big guy! This time I drive.” and he cackled like a madman.
With a carefree laugh that I soon echoed, the no
longer lone ex Ranger and his irrepressible Guide rode off into the sunset with
a hearty pfissst ommp, pfissst ommp,
pfissst ommp’.
Thank you Susan for the home.
Feedback welcome at skyepony@mindspring.com
. But its my first fanfic so flamer’s
need not reply,